Pacquiao to spar vs 5 different boxers

By Steve Angeles, ABS-CBN North America News Bureau

LOS ANGELES, California – Manny “The Pacman” Pacquiao put on his sparring gear and took his first US sparring session, as he prepares for his December 8th matchup against Juan Manuel Marquez.

“Feels good. I think I'm 70-80% conditioned. We have five, five and a half weeks. We have enough time,” Pacquiao said.

Pacquiao spent Tuesday sparring six rounds with long time sparring partner Ray Beltran and Russian Ruslan Provodnikov, who began sparring with the Filipino earlier this year.

Top Rank's chief Bob Arum was at the Wild Card Gym, watching the sparring session.

“Well it's the first day so you can't expect him to be on the first day the way he's going to be at the end of the sparring,” said Arum.

Last week, Pacquiao had begun sparring sessions while training in General Santos.

Roach said the first two days have so far gone well.

“His first day we did 10 rounds of the mitts, he's in good shape. His second day we sparred six rounds today and it went okay in certain spots. But it's his first day [of sparring] we can't be too critical of that. I'm very happy where he's at,” said the coach.

Roach said Pacquiao will have as many as five different sparring partners for this camp.

According to reports, Marquez has also begun his training in Mexico, sparring against four left-handed fighters.

As camp progresses over the next few weeks, the sparring sessions will also get more intense with Pacquiao taking on more partners and adding on more rounds.